1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an evaporator and a fuel reformer including the same.
2. Discussion of Related Art
A fuel reformer is an apparatus which reforms fuel and generates hydrogen rich gas. This fuel reformer can be used with a fuel cell (which is a clean power generating apparatus that can directly generate electric energy by an electrochemical reaction of hydrogen and oxygen), etc.
The fuel reformer generally includes a heat source and a reforming reactor. The heat source supplies necessary heat to the reforming reactor, and the reforming reactor reforms fuel and generates hydrogen rich gas. The reforming reactor can generate the hydrogen rich gas using a stream reforming scheme, an auto-thermal reforming scheme, a partial oxidation scheme, or a combination thereof.
Also, the fuel reformer can further include an evaporator to improve fuel efficiency and apparatus performance. In this case, the evaporator evaporates a liquid-phase fuel flowing into the evaporator from the outside, and supplies it (that is, a gas-phase fluid evaporated from the liquid-phase fuel) to the reforming reactor.
That is, when a liquid-phase fuel or water flows into the reforming reactor using the stream reforming scheme, the performance of the fuel reformer is significantly reduced due to a non-uniform reforming reaction. In other words, since the volume of the liquid-phase water is increased to 22.4L per 1 cc by vaporization, when the liquid-phase water flows into the reforming reactor, the stream reforming reaction is non-uniform, such that the generated gas is pulsated. In order to reduce or prevent this problem, an existing evaporator includes a relatively long channel as compared to the volume of the fuel reformer so as to evaporate the liquid-phase fuel and water flowing in from the outside.
Therefore, the existing evaporator has a large volume due to the long channel structure. Also, in the case of a small evaporator, the evaporator has a complicated structure due to the long channel structure, such that it is difficult to manufacture. In addition, the fuel reformer having a large volume has a long warm-up time.